I mean, in addition to some core work and some extra peripheral weight exercises.
I ask, because at my current age (49) and after 19 years of working out, what matters most to me in terms of results is burning calories and keeping my midriff in check. I no longer care much about increasing the circumference of my upper arm, or bench pressing more than my weight. Now, it seems that in 40 minutes of using the elliptical trainer, I can burn 450 or sometimes even 500 calories, if the machine is to be believed, and I just can’t see how that would be possible in 40 minutes of weight training. At the same time, I do want to maintaiin a reasonably athletic build.
If I’m lucky and one is available, I use an elliptical trainer that also has the armholds, so your upper body helps in doing the work. I set the resistance fairly high (60 on a Cybex), whatever that means; I have no idea how much force I’m exerting but it definitely takes some effort. It seems a much more intense workout than I get with the weights, at least if the amount of sweat is any indication.
So my question boils down to: how much can I increase my cardio work, specifically on a machine that hits most major muscle groups, at the expense of traditional strength training, and still maintain my shape? Due to time constraints, I can’t do more of one without sacrificing some of the other.
As always, the answer is that it depends on a number of factors. How much do you weigh? What’s your body composition? How strong are you? How’s your aerobic fitness? What’s your diet like? What’s your weight routine like? What’s your routine on the elliptical like? I’m sure I could come up with more, but unless you’re exceptional in any category, long duration/moderate intensity aerobic exercise isn’t terribly good for your muscle mass or strength levels, although you could offset some of the damage with your weight routine.
Even if the machine is to be believed (and I have my doubts), how long does your metabolism stay up after you get off? Even a moderately intense weight routine can raise your metabolism for the next day and a half. The only sort of exercises that can match that on the elliptical is all-out sprinting or intervals (both of which are good things to do).
To be honest, this depends a lot on your individual body-type, eating habits, and lifestyle. However, there is an essential difference between catabolic and anabolic types of workouts.
Admittedly, I am no expert. I do, however, spend a lot of time in the gym as a collegiate lacrosse player, and have done a fair amount of research into this same subject. What I have learned is this: what you don’t maintain, you lose. If you are regularly exerting the muscles you feel are necessary to maintain that athletic figure, whether that be through gardening, sports, chores, or your profession, you don’t need to be too concerned about them disappearing.
That being said, cardio is an essentially catabolic exercise–one that stimulates the metabolism and digestion of macro-molecules. This is especially true of endurance running, like what you appear to be doing. When a person exerts them self aerobically (with oxygen) the body needs a constant supply of energy to maintain that exertion. This energy comes from energy packed molecules like sugars. When you have depleted your blood sugar, your body releases hormones that stimulate the breakdown of a substance called glycogen in your liver. Glycogen is a glucose polymer (a molecule that consists of lots of glucose bonded together), and its catabolism keeps sugar in your blood to power your muscles. When your glycogen runs out, the body looks for other sources of fuel, and unfortunately muscle is the next most efficient to digest. Endurance runners don’t usually carry a lot of extra muscle. It weighs them down and is consumed as fuel, because they don’t have enough glycogen to keep them going.
The long and short of all this is that when you run for a long time, you breakdown your muscles as fuel.
At what point you begin to do this varies. A lot. Running 40 minutes, you may or may not be exhausting your body’s other sources of energy. However, the more often you exhaust your supply of glycogen, the more of it your body will store. It is a constant struggle for me, in season, to maintain my preferred playing weight of about 200 lbs for exactly this reason. But then, I have three hours of practice a day. I doubt your level of exertion will be this high.
By increasing the amount of aerobic exercise you may lose muscle mass. If you are okay with that, no worries. It all depends on what you would call an athletic figure. Running more will keep you slim and well defined. As for the strength/muscle building attributes of a full body elliptical machine, from personal experience I would guess they are pretty close to nil. I think they just increase the aerobic intensity of the work out and do not qualify as an anaerobic exercise, like a set on the bench.
What I would recommend, if you want to maintain muscle mass and are worried about time constraints, is some HIGH INTENSITY, low volume training. The merits of exhaustive training like you hear body builders using are dubious anyway. Just try to do one or two sets a week of the muscles that aren’t getting enough attention in day to day life, antagonist muscle groups, etc… Make sure they are HIGH INTENSITY though–you want to feel your muscles burn.
If you are really serious about staying fit in your ‘golden years,’ do some research. A little reading will teach you a lot. If you want a place to start, I recommend exrx.net–as far as I am concerned the most informative, least gimmicky, and all around best fitness site on the internets.
Bear in mind the huge degree of variability in human physiology. Be aware of your own body. Find what works.
Well, I’m about 155# and 5’8" soaking wet. When I’ve tried body fat measuring equipment, I get results varying between low and average. I think my BMI is about average, but I don’t place much store by that because a simple height to weight ratio doesn’t take into account the greater weight of muscle compared to fat.
I certainly don’t look fat, but even at my skinniest I was always a little flabby around the waist, and never did have the six-pack abs thing going.
All good advice so far. I’ll just add that strength training isn’t necessarily about bench pressing your body weight and let’s be realistic, if you’ve been working out for 19 years and can’t bench more than your body weight, then you’ve been on a maintenence program anyway.
Your body composition is the result of your lifestyle. If you want to permanently change your body composition, then you have to permanently change your lifestyle and I’d suggest that getting your nutrition sorted out will do more in that regard than tweaking your exercise routine. As we age, what we eat and how we eat makes more and more of a difference in our body composition due to hormonal changes and changes in insulin response. I believe it’s time for you to get serious about nutrition and do some research. Here’s a good place to start:
As for training, it’s really pretty simple. If you train like a marathoner, you’ll look like a marathoner. If you train like a power lifter, you’ll look like a power lifter. If you want to look like something in between, then train somewhere in between. Some aerobic work combined with some strength work.
The number of calories you burn while exercising is trivial compared to the number of calories you burn the other 23 hrs of the day. To make the most of your time in the gym, make your aerobic type work High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT jacks up your metabolism so you burn more calories all day long. Also, muscle burns more calories than fat so maintaining your muscle mass is also important.
Here’s a book that everyone concerned about maintaining their health and vigor should read:
I was going to post a very similar question today, just after I got off of the elliptical at lunch. I’ll just piggy-back on this one!
I’m currently rehabbing from back surgery (discectomy), with some nerve damage causing the beginnings of “drop foot”. Due to inactivity before surgery, and for two months afterward, I have become flabby. I can use the elliptical machine because my feet don’t leave the pads, so I don’t sprain my weaker ankle.
How effective is the interval setting on the elliptical? Is it a decent HIIT workout? My general workout is 30 minutes (sometimes 45), 10 resistance (out of 20), and the fat burning interval setting. I usually get about one mile every ten minutes. Should I go even shorter time, with a higher resistance?
I am in generally good shape (6’3", 205 pounds), and I also do weight training. Since I can’t play basketball until my foot is functional, I’m hoping the elliptical interval training is good for stamina and fat burning…
The sort of interval training that I’m talking about (and I suspect the other guys too) is slightly different. It consists of longer periods of walking, followed by shorter periods of sprinting as fast as you can. The most typical breakdown is a 20 minute session, consisting of 2 minutes walking and 30 seconds sprinting. If you’re looking a bit more of a challenge, try 1.5 minutes walking and 30 seconds sprinting.
If you’re feeling masochistic, you can try interval build-up running. Start out walking for 30 seconds, then sprint for 20. You’ll repeat that five times, except that you’ll add 30 seconds of walking and 10 seconds of sprinting each time. It’s not bad at first, but that 70 second sprint at the end will make you think about why you’re doing it. And if for some reason that’s not enough, you can try the Tabata protocol (20 seconds sprinting, 10 seconds walking, repeat seven times).
Pretty much. At least my experience has been that as I get older I have to be less gung ho about upping the poundages lest I hurt myself in some stupid way. Case in point: I was routinly using 55# DBs for my incline bench presses, until on one side I went too low with my right arm, thereby overly bending my elbow and hurting the tendon there. Only now am I getting to where I feel I can handle more than just light dumbbells again. That stuff didn’t happen to me when I was 30.
Incorporating weight lifting into your workout is always a good idea. It will help prevent injuries or other detrimental conditions that may occur from overuse of joints and the like. I injured my knee in the military and was not able to run much until I started lifting weights (lots of leg exercises), and after doing squats and deadlifts for a few months, I was able to run a 5k with no pain. Before that, my knee would swell up and be extremely painful just walking up more than 3 flights of stairs.
edit: It doesn’t have to be gung ho or pushing yourself to the limit, just a gradual increase of resistance.
I have found one hour/week of Pilates to be excellent for the midriff, if that’s all you’re worried about.
A further thing: During a course of physical therapy, I asked my PT who stayed in the best shape as they aged (meaning, most functional, not necessarily six-pack abs). Answer: people who did either yoga or Pilates.
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I can’t run until the nerves in my leg are working again. I roll my ankle at the slightest provocation . I am just looking for a decent low impact interval training regimen, so I can get rid of the belly. Maybe I will look at pilates, as mentioned.
